Mary Queen of Scots Chronology & Timeline – 1542 to 1587

1542
8 December; Mary Stuart is born at Linlithgow Palace
14 December; James V, King of Scots, Mary’s father, dies at 31

1543
Mary crowned Queen of Scots

1546
Cardinal Beaton is murdered; ascendancy of pro-French party

1547
January; King Henry VIII of England dies
March; King Francis I of France dies
10 September; battle of Pinkie; Scots defeated by English forces led by duke of Somerset; new French king, Henry II, sends troops and money to Scotland; Mary is betrothed to Henry II’s heir Francis, dauphin of France

1569 Elizabeth exonerates Mary from the charges made against her; aged 26

1578 Mary’s third husband, the earl of Bothwell (age 41), dies in a prison in Denmark; aged 35

1580 Mary writes Essay on Adversity in prison; aged 37

1586 Mary is tried for conspiring to kill Elizabeth; aged 43

1587 on 8 February, Mary is executed in the Great Hall of Fotheringhay Castle, Northamptonshire

1603 Queen Elizabeth I dies in March & Mary’s only child, James VI of Scotland, becomes James I of England. He is the first King of both Scotland and England. He moves his mother’s body to Westminster Abbey and has a grand monument built.

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